Angie Reyes and Corruption in the Government

 

There were mixed reactions to the suicide of Gen Angie Reyes as a result of the scandal in the AFP. He was vilified by some but also glorified by others; insulted in the senate but still adored in the agencies that he has worked with he has worked with; and accused by one friend but remained respected by other friends.

After writing several articles on Angie Reyes, many would expect that my concluding article would be something that would declare him innocent of the charges of corruption imputed against him. A friend who was able to read all my previous articles asked if I felt that he was innocent considering that I was extolling most of his virtues in my articles. He was expecting me to somehow say yes but he was disappointed when I said that Angie Reyes was corrupt. I said it not because I have specifically seen that he stole money nor that I have proof of corrupt actions on his part. I claim none of those.

The more appropriate questions that may asked are any of the following: “How corrupt was Angie Reyes?; Was he more corrupt than the whistle blower or the honorable senators who conducted the inquiry?; Is the AFP the only corrupt agency in the government?; or How corrupt is the AFP compared to other agencies in government say, the Department of Public Works and Highways, the Bureau of Customs, the Bureau of Internal Revenue, or the Honorable House of Congress, among others?” Was Angie just a house lizard? a gecko? a bayawak? a salamander? an alligator or a giant crocodile? (This is to borrow the ridicule by many when they categorize the personnel of an agency in government noted for its corruption.)

During the “inquisition” on Angie in the senate, he asked LtC G, his accuser: “Noong ako ay CSAFP, ako ba ay nagging ganid?” (When I was the CSAFP was I exceedingly greedy?) That question of his was an indirect admission of guilt but with a hint that it was of a lesser scale and of a tolerable limit; and that while he did it everybody benefited from his indiscretions to include the whistle blower himself. This is similar to a previous sensational case of corruption which even implicated the highest office of the land and some top ranking national government officials where the whistle blower was advised by his friend and former superior to temper the greed of people involved in the ZTE deal. These parallel situations suggest that all the while, corruption exists in the Philippine bureaucracy but only of different levels depending on the kind of people who perpetrated them whether they were house lizards, geckos, salamanders, alligators or giant crocodiles.

Any position of authority is prone to corruption. To be blunt about it, it is almost impossible for any person to remain spotless in our present bureaucracy. For him to say that he was never corrupt while in the discharge of his office is at the height of hypocrisy. Daniel Webster defines corruption as any improper conduct or the making of an act evil. It means that a public servant is corrupt when his actions go beyond the due bounds of his authority and when he takes undue advantage of his position for financial or material gains at the detriment of others. By this definition everyone is corrupt.

This is not to justify whatever misdoings the former Chiefs of Staffs of the AFP had done because corruption is corruption regardless of how small they may have stolen. Here we see a need for change but we can only start this change if we accept that we ourselves are guilty rather than just point accusing fingers on others except ourselves. We also have to rid ourselves with hypocrisy and start within our own spheres of influence. We are not blind but we refuse to see. We are lucky to have President Noy who is a model of honesty and that is a good start. If he can make honest men of our lawmakers, our local executives, our judges, our soldiers and policemen and other public servants, then we have something to rejoice about because we are in for a new beginning.